Dorian Merina

Dorian Merina

Dorian joined KPCC in 2013. He covered immigration, crime, climate change, education and arts & culture before taking over the military and veterans beat.

Dorian has reported on how L.A.’s new Crenshaw train line is changing historic Leimert Park and how Mexico's crisis of missing persons affects Southern California families searching for lost loved ones. He's mined public records to show how L.A.’s immigration courts continue to deport child migrants at high rates despite the Obama administration's change in policy. He's contributed to Take Two's special on the 50th Anniversary of the Watts Riots and the week-long series "After Saigon." Dorian has also contributed to KPCC's "Officer Involved" investigation on police shootings. He's contributed coverage to both the men and women's World Cup games in 2014 and 2015 as well as covered L.A.'s hosting of the Copa América.

Before coming to KPCC, Dorian reported from Southeast Asia and spent a year documenting indigenous oral poetry in the Philippines on a Fulbright grant. His own poetry earned a Poetry Foundation Award in 2008 for the film, "Migrations."

He speaks both Spanish and Tagalog and just enough Bahasa Indonesia to find his way through the food stalls in Jakarta.

Racial and ethnic minorities make up an increasing share of the military, yet face added obstacles when seeking to access veterans benefits, according to a report from the Department of Veterans Affairs.